Welcoming staircase...

With all of the remodeling we have done so far to this home, this by far has been one of my most time consuming. Crazy right? I mean, it's just a small set of stairs. Au contraire! I knew the look I wanted, it was there in my brain, but getting it from just a vision in my mind to an actual finished product took a lot of planning. Throw in a few mistakes along the way and it was the staircase that never seemed to end. I knew I wanted to remove the carpet. I knew I liked the look of stained treads with white risers. I knew I liked the look of a carpet runner, but not the work to keep one clean. So here it is, in all its glory along with some photos of the process. Everything you see is painted, either with gel stain or porch and patio paint. The bannister still needs to be painted.

How I love doors!

Here is our newest door! My husband so graciously indulges my door fetish. I had been looking for a door for our home office. I found this door off of a local FB page where members can list vintage items for sale. I don't know the actual age of the door, but believe it to be from the early 1900's. Now before you ask…let me say this, "No, we do not run a remodeling company". I wanted something whimsical for the glass. Since I was fortunate enough to receive a Silhouette Cameo for my birthday this year, I knew I would be adding some vinyl to this door. My husband and I were married in 1989 and quite literally have been remodeling our homes ever since!

Closet turned mudroom space

This closet is right off of our garage. Since we already have a coat closet for guests in our entry foyer, I thought it would be nice to have a closet that was just for family items. I have always liked the look of a wall using reclaimed wood and our basement remodel had us swimming in the stuff. This closet seemed like the perfect place to try my hand at a reclaimed wood wall. I will come back and add more photos later of the process, but for now..here is the finished project.

Updated for Fall

Enjoying decorating the bicycle corner.

Finding just the right spot.

We've moved the bike from the foyer to an odd little nook we have in our living room. We are still working on accessorizing. I added a picnic basket since this photo was taken. As we move into autumn I will replace with something more…'fallish'. I am liking it all so far, but I know it will look much better when we replace the carpet with wood floors!

Goodbye to our Best Friend...

We said Goodbye to our best friend last week. Jenna was 13 1/2 years old and she was suffering from congestive heart failure. Last Thursday she suffered a major heart attack and within moments was gone. We are grateful that she did not suffer and that we were with her when she passed. We are adjusting to her absence, but find the hole she has left in our family to be much larger than we imagined.

A New Space to Decorate

The new drywall is up in the foyer and the painting is complete! I chose SW Wool Skein. Now on to decorating the space. I was generously gifted this 1949 Schwinn bicycle from my in-laws. Now to figure out just how to use it in the space. They foyer is fairly large so I have lots of wall space with which to play!

New Favorite Room! The Master Bathroom is finished.

Remember the 'before'? The after will take your breath away!

Never did post our Christmas Picture.

For those who may not have seen it. :-)

And the two shall become one….

Here are the before pictures of our bathrooms. Can I just say, if we ever sell this house we will use the photographer that did these? The difference between the photos and real life were astonishing. I know, I've made this point before, but never ever trust a photo. LOL. Now that the kids have a wonderful new bathroom we are combining the two old ones to create one large master bathroom. The room dimensions are roughly 10 x 11. We decided to go with a custom shower and no tub. We really like the look of the subway tile size tumbled stone, but have not made a final decision yet. The vanities will be the same design as the ones in the kids bathroom only in a different finish. They will flank the door from the master bedroom.

Here are some photos in its current state. We are down to absolute bare…EVERYTHING! Ceiling is gone, floors are gone, walls are gone. Next up..the door to the hallway will get walled in and the current door from the master bedroom is being moved.

Den with new wood burning insert.

The den continues to be our favorite room in the house. The new wood burning stove adds to the overall cozy feel.

Bathroom Door!

My husband says I am a Houzz.com addict..and he's right. I found a picture of a bathroom door that I just loved, so I showed it to my husband and said, "Can you make this for me?" Yes, there was a little bit of eyelash fluttering that went along with the request. The job was no small task. We are on a very tight budget and we didn't want to have to purchase a new door, so my husband set about making modifications to the door we had. We had hoped that the old 6 panel doors in our house were solid, but alas, they are not. Mark made cuts in the existing door then proceeded to reinforce the opening so that it could handle the glass pane. The entire project took a few weeks, but the finished product was better than I could imagine!

New Bathroom/Laundry

The room conversion is complete! What was once our fourth bedroom is now the kids' bathroom and the laundry area. What a blessing to have the laundry on the top floor. No more climbing down three flights of stairs to do the laundry. The kids each have their own vanity on opposite sides of the room. No more bumping elbows while they brush their teeth. The commode has its own little room tucked away in the corner.

Before Photo:

Katie's Room...Before and After

Katie's room was so much fun to put together! When we first viewed the house she and her brother were told to choose who got which bedroom. She chose this bedroom because as soon as she saw it she could envision built-ins on either side of the window with a desk in between. She drew her ideas out for Mark and he built them. The color choices were all Katie.

Daniel's Bedroom - After

As many of you know, Daniel is a filmmaker. We wanted his room to reflect what he loves. We went for a monochromatic theme. The border was designed and executed by me. Katie and Daniel picked out the 'screen shots' they wanted to include on the film strip, then I printed them off and used spray adhesive to attach them to the white painted 1 x 6 that Mark cut to fit the walls. I then used electrical tape and black car pin-striping tape to create the outline of the 'film'. I painted the 'sprocket holes' by hand. Afterwards I used some spray gloss finish to protect the project. The headboard is a simple upholstered board. I used letter stencils and white fabric paint to do the letters. Xavious Pictures is Daniel and Katie's production company. The movie posters were created by Daniel. They are from two of his short films.

Daniel's Bedroom-- Before

Now, as I said, this house photographs really well. What you can't see in this picture is that the paint on the bottom was a very high gloss green painted over wallpaper. The baseboards and window and door trim all had peeling paint. The walls had patch marks everywhere.

Our House!

So, I think it's finally time to start posting some pictures of our new house. Well, it isn't exactly new, it was built in 1969, but it is new to us! We had been searching for well over a year following our move to Indiana. We walked into this house and within 10 minutes were ready to write and offer. (When you house hunt for over a year, its not that hard to figure out what you like and what you don't like) This house was full of potential in our opinion. It's in a great golf course neighborhood. Because of its age, the lots are large and the trees are even larger! To say this house has a lot of work that needs to be done is an understatement. Although it shows very well in photos..as you will see when I post the before shots, what you can't see is the years of neglect and bad paint jobs! And so, without further ado...we present to you...our home.

The War- The kids' latest video

Weekend Getaway

You know it just doesn't get much better than this! We spent a fantastic family weekend in Southwest Michigan, driving along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The beaches were comfortably quiet. The warmth of the sand between our toes was strangely unfamiliar, even though we had lived only 50 miles from a beach in Oregon. Could that be because the beaches in Michigan were actually warmer than those in Oregon? It would appear so. We visited quaint little beach towns with all of the usual artsy stores. Although the temperatures were only in the 60's the feel of the sun on our faces made it feel so much warmer.

Spring?

We have not quite figured out the weather here in Indiana. To be honest, I don't think the weathermen have either. It changes so rapidly. This morning as I sip my coffee I have to shield my eyes from the sunlight coming through the window. It's a very deceiving sight as currently the 'feels like' temperature is only 18º. My weather widget on my IMac assures me that on Wednesday we will see highs in the 60s.